Whether you’re single and online dating, or spicing up a long term relationship, a scientist or mathematician has probably delivered a TED talk that’s relevant to your love life. Is there mathematics to love? Is falling in love just the easy part? Has technology changed love for millenials?

If you’re curious about these answers, you have to check out these TED Talks. They’ll teach you some pretty remarkable things about yourself and your potential soul mate. .

Technology Hasn’t Changed Love. Here’s Why

The (awesome) anthropologist Helen Fisher uses science and data to study human emotions and romantic love. She stresses to us that love actually hasn’t changed, it’s the courting that has.

As the Chief Scientific Advisor for Match.com, she says dating sites are really just introducing sites. When you meet up with someone at a bar after matching with them on Tinder “your ancient brain snaps into action like a sleeping cat awakened”. She says, “You smile and laugh and listen and parade the way our ancestors did 100,000 years ago. We can give you various people — all the dating sites can — but the only real algorithm is your own human brain.”

We may use emojis, sexting and “liking” to express our attraction, but it hasn’t changed the way we love someone. Quite relieving to hear, really.

Falling In Love Is The Easy Part

Writer Mandy Len Catron had a viral article in the New York Times about a love experiment she tried out on a first date called “To fall in love with anyone, do this.”

Pretty much, the procedure involved asking your date 36 excruciatingly personal questions. One of them is “when did you last cry in front of another person or by yourself?” For me, the answer would be “yesterday, because my group assignment is going nowhere.”

The fact that the 36 questions experiment was successful for Mandy was so exciting to everyone. But, she says, falling in love is easy — it’s producing long lasting love and a sustainable relationship that’s hard work. Falling in love isn’t a choice, and these 36 questions are a push to getting closer with a stranger who you may possibly fall in love with. However, we all have a choice in keeping a relationship strong, and that’s where the “greatest of happiness” comes. In other terms, try not to fuck it up too much.

Wanna use these 36 questions on your next Tinder date? Right here, guys.

The Brain In Love

Hello again, Helen Fisher. Yeah, she’s not done yet — this time she talks about our brains when we’re in love. She wants to know “why do we crave love so much, even to the point that we would die for it?” But seriously, why do we?

One of the things she touches on is that our love for someone actually grows after we’ve been dumped or rejected. So next time your mate says, “Come on, Dave, It’s been six weeks, just move on”, you can just blame it on your human brain.

Also, a fun fact from Fisher, “The same brain region where we found activity (of feeling romantic love) becomes active also when you feel the rush of cocaine.” Well, there’s something Sex and the City didn’t cover.

The Mathematics Of Love

Complexity theorist Hannah Fry — who has a very soothing British accent — talks about how mathematics can provide some pretty solid dating advice.

After some interesting findings in online dating patterns, Fry says, “It turns out that on an online dating website, how attractive you are does not dictate how popular you are, and actually, having people think that you’re ugly can work to your advantage.” Mind blown. Basically, being too attractive is intimidating and your amazing pictures might scare off online dating users.

Therefore, you can feel free to show off your flaws (like the mole you’re embarrassed about or your interesting taste in fashion) because you’re quickly eliminating the people who won’t go for you anyway. You’re also not wasting your own time with them either. People who are attracted to you are attracted to you — this won’t change.

Claudia is a freelance writer and filmmaker, who is obsessed with scented candles and anything French. You can read her personal stories on her new blog, Fancy Pants. 

(Lead image: TED.com)